Staggerwing aircraft

Abstract

An aircraft having a fuselage provided with wing panels in staggered positions along the fuselage such that control surfaces of the forward wing panel are substantially closer to the center of gravity than are the control surfaces of the rearward wing panel. This arrangement results in reduced drag effects at transonic speeds, and provides a novel way of obtaining precise control of the aircraft position by using the control surfaces for vertical translation with minimum pitching moments.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. In aircraft, the combination of an elongated fuselage and a single wing providing substantially all the lift of said aircraft, said wing consisting of a first single wing panel connected at one side of said fuselage, a second single wing panel connected at the opposite side of said fuselage, said first and second single wing panels being similar and in substantial coplanar alignment from side-to-side, having the same angle of sweep and being staggered, with said first single wing panel offset from said second single wing panel so as to have an asymetrical relationship relative to the longitudinal axis of said fuselage. 
     
     
       2. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said wing panels each have flight control surfaces hingedly connected in inboard and outboard relation along the trailing edge of said wing panels, said flight control surfaces on one wing panel being closer to the center of gravity of the aircraft than said flight control surfaces on the other wing panel. 
     
     
       3. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said wing panels each have flight control surfaces hingedly connected along the trailing edge of said wing panels, certain of said flight control surfaces being ailerons and others thereof being flaps. 
     
     
       4. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the aerodynamic center of one of said first and second wing panels is closer to the center of gravity of the aircraft than the aerodynamic center of the other one of said first and second wing panels. 
     
     
       5. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein control surfaces are hingedly mounted on said wing panels with the control surface on said first wing panel being movable to predominately provide a vertically directed flight control component and with the control surface on said second wing panel being movable to predominately provide a pitching component on the aircraft. 
     
     
       6. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said fuselage and staggered wing panels form an airframe geometry having reduced drag at transonic speeds relative to an equivalent aircraft with symmetrical wing panels, each of said first and second wing panels have flight control surfaces hingedly mounted thereon, and means is operatively connected to said flight control surfaces to operate certain thereof for imposing predominately vertical components of control and others thereof for imposing predominately pitching components of control. 
     
     
       7. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein said elongated fuselage and asymmetrically related first and second wing panels are arranged to develop a cross section of substantially uniform increasing area along the length of the fuselage as measured from the fuselage nose to a lesser maximum cross sectional area aft of the center of gravity area of an equivalent aircraft with symmetrical wing panels. 
     
     
       8. In aircraft having an asymmetrical wing to airframe geometry for reduced drag at transonic speeds and for precise control comprising, the improvement of: a fuselage elongated in the direction of the flight path a single wing providing substantially all the lift of said aircraft, said wing consisting of; a single pair of wing panels connected into said fuselage at opposite sides thereof and in substantially the same side-to-side plane, with one of said wing panels being disposed more forward on said fuselage than the other wing panel; and control surfaces hingedly mounted on each of said wing panels, said control surface on said one more forward wing panel predominately providing a lift component and said control surface on said other wing panel predominately providing a pitch component. 
     
     
       9. The improvement set forth in claim 8, wherein the center of pressure of one wing panel is closer to the center of gravity of the aircraft than the center of pressure of the other wing panel. 
     
     
       10. The improvement set forth in claim 8, wherein said control surfaces include outboard trailing edge ailerons and inboard trailing edge flaps on said wing panels. 
     
     
       11. In a single wing aircraft convertible from a symmetrical wing configuration to a staggered wing configuration having substantially unchanged aerodynamic parameters affecting stability and control, and achieving significant reduction in wave drag at or in the region of Mach 1.2 for the staggered wing configuration, the combination of an elongated fuselage in which the center of gravity of the aircraft is located on the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, a pair of wing panels operably connected to said fuselage with one panel on each side of said fuselage and said panels having leading and trailing edges with said leading edges having the same angle of sweep, and means operating said panels between positions in symmetrical side-to-side alignment and positions with said panels staggered with one panel leading edge offset from the other panel leading edge so as to have an asymmetrical relationship relative to the longitudinal axes of said fuselage and without change in the sweep angle of said wing panels, such that the center of pressure of said panels are relatively displaced with respect to each other and with said center of gravity, and in such staggered wing configuration the cross sectional area of said panels is distributed along said fuselage to produce the reduction in wave drag. 
     
     
       12. The aircraft of claim 11 wherein control surfaces are hingedly mounted on said trailing edges of said wing panels, said control surface on one of said panels with its leading edge more forward than the leading edge of the other panel predominately providing a lift component and said control surface on the other wing panel trailing edge predominately providing a pitch component.